Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions Best Way to Connect Notebook Computer to Receiver?

I have a Dell Inspiron 6000 that I'm trying to connect to My new Integra 6.6 AVR. With my previous notebook and previous receiver, I was able to simply connect an 1/8 inch connection into the headphone jack and connect the rCA cables into the L/R tape input. It sounded pretty good. Now, when I connect the same way (w/ new notebook), the volume loss is about half along with the quality.

I subscribe to Rhapsody and have also suffered a loss in quality. I also purchased Creative Soundblaster and there is an optical out (1/8 inch) w/ an optical connection but I cannot figure out where to get it or if this will help.

I'm thinking my next step is to updrage by Radio Shack RCA cables and try that first.

Any other thoughts or suggestions that I should try. If I use my Sennheiser HD 595 Headphones, it sounds great.



I currently have de-installed the Creative and am using the soundcard that came with the computer.

You can get an external creative soundcard and use SPDIF (digital) out to the receiver.

Not to ask a dumb question (as I don't know your level of computer skills, and you may have already checked this), but have you checked the volume settings on the sound output from your PC?

I don't know of any notebook audio cards having "line out" (non-amplified), so I would lean toward an external audio card that has either a coax or optical digital output.

A standard headphone audio output is subject to whatever you have the audio levels set at on the PC. Using an external audio card with a direct digital output, gives you a line level audio output, then puts the digital to analog conversion tasks onto your receiver, a D/A converter, I am guessing, with a bit more horsepower than the one on your Dell.

Check Creative Lab's USB Soundblaster Digital Music LX;
http://www.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=1&subcategory=207&product=10246

or, if you've got a spare PC card slot;
http://www.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=1&subcategory=204&product=10769

Good luck,
Spence